Wednesday, June 4, 2014

New Video: Future Ethernet Speeds

Will the development of higher-speed Ethernet specifications lead to new, lower-speed Ethernet specs as well? Will we be seeing 25G and 50G Ethernet?

John D'Ambrosia, Chairman of the Ethernet Alliance and Chief Ethernet Evangelist at Dell, says the discussion of these topics is underway, but consensus needs to be built.  There are good reasons to develop high density technologies for high performance specifications. There are ramifications - most importantly, what will the proliferation of speeds mean for the future of Ethernet.

See 2 minute video:  http://youtu.be/5XVet5BLo28


Broadcom Debuts New Ethernet Switching Silicon

Broadcom introduced a new family of 10 Gigabit multiport Ethernet switches in its StrataConnect portfolio.  The new designs improve control plane and data plane connectivity by combining 1G, 2.5G, and 10G performance and diverse and flexible input/outputs (I/Os) at very low power consumption.

The new BCM534xx StrataConnect switch chips boast 160 Gbps total bandwidth, and 10 GbE I/O that can be flexibly configured.  The devices can be coupled with Broadcom's PHYs to enable a new generation of SMB switches used either to aggregate uplinks or connect 802.11ac Wave 2 access points.

Key Features of the BCM5340x and BCM5341x Switches

  • 160 Gbps Switching Capacity Bandwidth
  • Optional integrated ARM Cortex A9 CPU
  • Integrated 10G SerDes with diverse I/O for multiple configurations
  • Advanced single-stage ContentAware Engine for ACLs and QoS
  • Timestamping support with 1588 TC and SyncE
  • Low-power Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) support
  • Enterprise-class L2/L2+ scalability

Sampling is underway.

"Network topologies and operations have been transformed by the advent of smart Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Switching. To respond to market trends and customer requirements, 10 Gigabit Ethernet switching is being rapidly deployed, not only to increase the speed of Ethernet to 10 Gbps but also to lower latency of Layer 2 interconnectivity," said Ram Velaga, Broadcom Senior Vice President & General Manager, Network Switch. "With high performance 10 Gbps, advanced Layer 2 functionality, low power and the flexible I/O configuration, Broadcom's new SoC family is ideal for embedded control plane, backplane, unmanaged and WebSmart switch applications."

http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s852086

Juniper and Aruba Enter Strategic Partnership

Juniper Networks and Aruba Networks entered into a strategic alliance to deliver open, converged wired and wireless network solutions.

As part of this effort, Aruba will be able to leverage Juniper's programmable silicon and new programmable application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable higher value functions in enterprise networks.  The companies said their partnership will bring product-level integration that leverages open protocols and open APIs on Juniper switches and routers, and contextual data on users, devices, applications and location available from Aruba's enterprise Wireless LAN (WLAN) products.

"With Aruba we jointly deliver a unique, interoperable wired and wireless solution that will enable customers to realize performance, cost, intelligence and simplified management benefits. Additionally, Juniper's Open Convergence Framework provides customers with comprehensive solutions optimized for the unique requirements of the Enterprise," stated Shaygan Kheradpir, chief executive officer, Juniper Networks.

"The question on the table is not if employees will bring their own mobile devices into the workplace, but rather how those devices will be supported. There's an urgent need for IT departments to efficiently handle GenMobile's all-wireless requirements and the resulting influx of mobile device traffic. Aruba's joint development agreement with Juniper Networks brings together the best in mobility technology with a leader in wired switching and routing. The resulting rightsized network will help automate and accelerate business operations and deliver an integrated mobility experience on which GenMobile can depend," said Dominic Orr, chief executive officer, Aruba Networks.

http://www.juniper.net

Ericsson: Mobile Subscriptions up 7% YoY in 1Q2014

Ericsson calculates that the number of mobile subscriptions worldwide grew approximately 7 percent year-on-year during Q1 2014, with the most new additions coming in APAC nations. The number of mobile broadband subscriptions grew even faster over this period – at a rate of 35 percent year-on-year, reaching 2.3 billion.

According to Ericsson's new published Mobility Report, while the number of smartphones entering the market continues to soar and the volume of mobile/cellular data traffic was up 65% YoY, the adoption rate for LTE continues to vary geographically. Western Europe continues to see a lower LTE adoption rate than other mature markets.

Some highlights from the 32-page report:

  • 1.9 billion smartphone subscriptions in 2013
  • Ericsson is predicting a 10x growth in mobile data traffic between 2013 and 2019 
  • There was 20% world LTE population coverage in 2013
  • In terms of net additions for mobile subscriptions, the countries with the most new adds are in India, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh.
  • By the end of 2019, Ericsson is forecasting 9.2 billion mobile subscriptions, and 80% of which include mobile broadband.
  • 65 percent of all phones sold in Q1 2014 were smartphones. Compared to today, a smartphone user in 2019 is expected to consume almost four times the amount of mobile data per month. This contributes to the 10-fold growth prediction in mobile data traffic between 2013 and 2019.
  • Slower LTE uptake in Europe. By the end of 2019, Ericsson expects LTE will make up around 50 percent of the subscriptions base in Western Europe. The company notes that data services were rolled out early in this region, initially accessed via dongle or mobile PC. Ericsson says the drive for LTE has not yet been as strong in the region as in North America, due to factors such as having many well-developed 3G networks.

The full report is posted online.

http://hugin.info/1061/R/1790097/615436.pdf
http://www.ericsson.com/news/1790097






SiTime Brings MEMS Timing to Wearables

SiTime introduced the smallest, lowest power 32 kHz TCXO (temperature compensated oscillator) designed for the emerging market of wearable electronics and Internet of Things (IoT).

The new, 32 kHz TCXO (temperature compensated oscillator) device, which leverages SiTime's MEMS technology, comes in a 1.5 x 0.8 mm chip scale package (CSP). It can perform various functions in a system included delivering reference for real time clock (RTC) function, sleep clock for connectivity (Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi), and heartbeat clock for battery supervisory function.

Compared to a quartz TCXO, the SiT1552 MEMS TCXO is:

  • 20% of the size and is available in a 1.5 x 0.8mm CSP
  • 50% lower power, typically consuming less than 1 micro-amp
  • 45% thinner, with a height of 0.55 mm
  • 10 times faster startup, with a startup time of 0.3 milliseconds
  • 30 times higher shock resistance
  • 15 times higher reliability, at 500 million hours MTBF

“By using its game-changing TempFlat MEMS and analog technology, SiTime has once again shattered the limitations of quartz. The SiT1552 MEMS TCXO is 20% of the size and consumes 50% of the power of comparable quartz devices,” said Piyush Sevalia, executive vice president of marketing at SiTime. “Our MEMS enable new system architectures that offer higher performance, small size and longer battery life. With another industry first, we continue to revolutionize the timing industry with our breakthrough MEMS solutions.”

http://www.sitime.com/products/32-khz-oscillators/sit1552

Intel Rolls Out Solid-State Drives for PCIe

Intel announced a new family of Solid-State Drives (SSD) for PCIe and aimed at data centers.

Thew new drives boast substantial performance gains over SATA SSDs and traditional hard disk drives -- Intel claims up to six times faster data transfer speed than 6 Gbps SAS/SATA SSDs. Specifically, the Intel Solid-State Drive Data Center P3700 Series (460K IOPS), can replace the performance of 7 SATA SSDs aggregated through a host bus adapter (HBA) (approximately 500K IOPS).

The new drives are based on Intel-developed controller, firmware, and leading manufacturing process NAND flash memory. Drive capacities range from 400GB to 2.0TB.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/solid-state-drives/intel-ssd-dc-family-for-pcie.html

Lantiq and Intel Show LTE Cat6 Gateway Platform

Lantiq and Intel announced a joint reference platform for fixed LTE Broadband Router designs.

The co-developed reference platform combines the Intel XMM 7260 LTE communications platform with Lantiq’s GRX330 Communications Processor.

Key features:

  • An Intel designed M.2 module based on the Intel XMM 7260 platform delivers LTE-Advanced features  including flexible carrier aggregation - up to 40Mhz with support for up to 23 CA combinations in one SKU – and category 6 speeds (300 Mbps theoretical peak downlink speeds).
  • The 7260 supports more than 30 3GPP bands (21 bands simultaneous in a single SKU) and global network standards (LTE FDD/TDD, WCDMA/HSPA+, TD-SCDMA/TD-HSPA/EDGE).
  • The Lantiq GRX330 communications processor offers a full Gigabit Ethernet router design, using  a dedicated acceleration engine to maximize Wi-Fi throughput, while keeping the CPU available for other networking and application tasks.

http://www.lantiq.com
http://www.intel.com